Time began to pass swiftly for Tim Drake as he tried to adjust to his life as Black Mask's future puppet. According to the deal between the two, Roman looked after the finances required by the Drakes including Jack's treatment and ample investment to pay off Drake Corporate's loans while in return, Tim's company, his life, and his future were all indebted to the crime lord.

Years began to pass but there was only one thing that was still the same and that was Jack's lack of response and his inability to recover from the comatose state he had lapsed into.

Jack Drake had been shifted to another much better hospital but all sorts of treatment seemed to be in vain as it did not affect the man. Tim visited him regularly but as time passed with no improvement whatsoever, his hope was fading too.

He was slowly starting to accept that even after everything he was doing, he would not be able to see his father restored to health.

He was playing his part in the dark schemes of fate, going about his daily life as he was supposed to but his hopes and desires were slowly being snuffed out.

In his gradually darkening life, the only bright ray of light was his friendship with Stephanie. But that too was getting compromised as the new hospital where Jack was kept was much farther from Alleytown.

So Tim couldn't sneak out at times to visit his friend anymore and there was always such strict watch over him otherwise that he couldn't take the risk.

As a result, everything he was going through felt twice as hard.

Steph had become the only respite he had in whose presence he could forget about the terrifying crime lord and his equally threatening daughter. He had still not been able to understand the complex puzzle that went by the name of Lorena Sionis.

There were times when she ignored him or rarely acknowledged him like one would do with a classmate but other times she treated him as a rival and made things harder for him than usual. So he was confused about what her intentions were regarding him.

As his chances of getting to see Steph waned thin, his mood too started to be on edge much more often.

He was at the villa in a particularly sour mood after giving the term's final exams set up for them by the tutor assigned to teach him and Lorena. Due to his special circumstances, he had been allowed to give his high school exams earlier along with Lorena who had been homeschooled that way from the start.

Tim found his life no different than that of a pretty bird trapped in a cage. He sometimes wondered whether Lorena thought the same or not. Although she had some leverage over him as Black mask was fond of his only daughter, that still didn't mean she had the full freedom to do everything she wanted to.

Just like him, she too was always bound to the confines of that imperial villa, the towering walls proving testament to their imprisonment. Sometimes he wondered how long he would have to put up with that confinement and how long would he be able to tolerate it.

At times it felt as if his will power was slowly reaching its limit. Sometimes he wondered what would happen if it really reached the limit.

"It will break."

Her sharp voice shook him out of his thoughts and he looked up, seeing Lorena standing in front of him. She was referring to the pen that he was pushing into the crevice of his desk in an attempt to release the frustration inside him.

The nib had twisted and it was only a matter of time before it would break, spilling the dark ink over the expensive mahogany.

"What's wrong with you?" She asked yet again and his irritated blue eyes met with her sinisterly calm brown irises. "You have been acting very strangely."

"So? Does it bother you?" He snapped, unable to keep the irritation to himself.

"Yes," she replied indifferently, "you are behaving out of the ordinary. And things that are out of the ordinary disturb me."

"Then you should leave so that my unordinary presence doesn't disturb you," he huffed, breaking the unnerving eye contact.

The nib broke and ink spilled over the desk but Tim did not look the slightest bit apologetic about it.

"Will it make you better if I take you outside?" She offered quite out of the blue and he paused, not sure if he had heard her right. "Just for a short while perhaps... To someplace you would want to visit?"

Instantly, the thought of going to Alleytown flickered in his head but he shut it out, knowing that he couldn't afford to go there. Stephanie was a secret that he wished to keep hidden safely from Lorena and her father. So he could definitely not take the risk of going to see her with the crime lord's daughter in tow.

"Why are you being so generous?" He asked instead, knowing there was no way she could be offering that out of sympathy.

She shrugged, "I'm not. I want to go out too, you can come with me. I will talk to Father, don't worry."

His eyes were narrowed in suspicion nevertheless. "I don't trust you."

"You shouldn't," she replied breezily, unaffected by the coldness of his gaze, "but what other option do you have? Come with me or stay here and keep spoiling desks that no doubt my father will have to pay for. The choice is yours."

His cheeks flushed with humiliation and he wiped the ink stain with his handkerchief, smearing it black all over in the process. He couldn't understand Lorena's motives but staying in the villa was suffocating too.

"Where are you planning to go?" He asked finally, making up his mind to take up her offer while she was still surprisingly nice to him.

"Anywhere as long as there aren't many people around."

Her reply was vague and Tim felt she hadn't really thought out a place either. So after slightly pondering over the situation, he asked, "can we go to the graveyard then?"

She paused, not expecting that choice of destination. "The city graveyard? That's not very far from here and perhaps Maxwell will agree to go with us too. If he goes, we won't have to tell Father about it either."

Maxwell was the head of security appointed by Black Mask for the protection of his personal villa and his daughter. After that suggestion, Lorena had called Maxwell on her phone, asking him to see them in the study.

"Why do you want to go to a graveyard anyway?" She asked as she waited for Maxwell to show up.

"I have to pay a visit."

Her eyes flickered in curiosity, "to whom?"

"You'll see," he replied briefly, not willing to disclose anything further.

It had been a long time since he had gone to the graveyard. A visit was long overdue and if it didn't lessen the burden over his heart, perhaps nothing else in the world ever would.

***